More than a year after the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on tech support scam calls, filing charges against six scam operators last October, a new surge of fraudulent calls are pestering and duping Microsoft customers.
Computerworld reported they have continued to receive a consistent stream of e-mails about tech support scams, posing as Microsoft technicians in particular. The fraudulent calls show up as “Windows Support” on Caller IDs with a 425 Washington state area code.
The callers pose predominately as Microsoft—though companies like Dell, Symantec and McAfee are also impersonated—attempting to convince customers their computers are infected by directing them to a Windows log that shows harmless, low-level errors. Then the fraudsters try to con their way into downloading software or getting remote PC access to fix the problem.
The software often contains a Trojan or other malware, and duped customers have even reported paying fees to the fake Microsoft technicians for their “services.”
Read the full story over at Computerworld.
